He said: "I do support infrastructure investment in Wales and I do support the EU having cohesion and
structural funds.
The European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development (REGI) approved, on 20 March, a draft regulation to help the states hit hardest by the crisis to implement projects part-financed by the
Structural Funds through the creation of a risk-sharing mechanism.
As a result of the economic and financial crisis, the financing of energy investments in housing by EU
Structural Funds could be authorised throughout the European Union.
"We are working closely with the UK Government and European Institutions to help shape the UK's negotiating position and the policy direction for
structural funds.
The EU's Committee of the Regions (CoR) fears that the European Commission's recent proposal to suspend part of the Cohesion Fund commitments in Hungary for 2013 due to the country's excessive budget deficit (see Europolitics 4370) sets a precedent for the extension of macroeconomic conditionality to all
Structural Funds post-2013 - something which the CoR is strongly opposed to.
But we have to be careful not to forget that the
Structural Funds are first and foremost extraordinary development instruments that work over the longer term.
WELSH Labour MEP Derek Vaughan has been named the lead negotiator for the European Parliament to secure the future of
structural funds.
As announced by Europolitics at the beginning of February (see 3465), the European Commission intends to adapt legislation on the Community's
Structural Funds to allow the financing of housing-related energy investments in the EU15.
Danuta Hubner (EPP, Poland), chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development (REGI), is starting to lose patience with the Council over its lack of cooperation on examining a draft regulation that would help states hit hardest by the crisis implement projects financed under the
Structural Funds through the creation of a risk-sharing mechanism(1).
